Quality of life… can you put a dollar amount on it? At a recent town board finance committee meeting board members commented on how they liked to roll in to town hall 5 minutes before a meeting, park and still arrive to the meeting on time. Ease of parking should NOT be a reason for spending nearly $3 million dollars of our tax dollars.

2014 Budget Follow up Questions

The town board made a budget decision to not do any permanent or temporary expansion to town hall. Instead they opted to look into temporary offices.

Town Hall Addition Timeline

March, 2016 –Board approval of architect agreement

April, 2016 -Approval of a “preconstruction services” agreement with a Contract Manager/General Contractor to generally review constructability and assist in the development of a firm construction budget. First discussions between Town Board and architect on the project

May, 2016 – Schematic Design presentation to Town Board by architect of three (3) potential Town Hall addition designs

See Page 20
Civic Uses: 100,000 sf, including up to 45,000 sf Town Hall, 20,000 sf Recreation Center in the south neighborhood, 20,000 sf Civic Center in the north and 15,000 sf Community Center/Library (within the flex space above retail) overlooking the Town Square at the intersection of Main Street and Marshall Road.

In March of 2013 the Town of Superior and the STC developer signed an agreement that was to give the town 1.5 acres to build a Town Hall. See page 6, section 3.13 then turn to page 25 to see the Probable Cost Summary where there is $10,000,000 allocated for the building of Town Hall.

Please feel free to leave comments regarding your thoughts on the town hall expansion. Comments will be shared with the Town Board and staff.

7 Comments

daryl
on May 14, 2016 at 6:47 pm

Did you know that the proposed site for this expansion is zoned single-family residential? As you can see from the photo at the top of the page, single family homes surround this property. An open discussion with residents about whether this is the best location needs to happen. Residents closest to this property have yet to be informed of the expansion.

Anonymous
on May 15, 2016 at 6:17 pm

We believe the process of Town Hall expansion must be widely discussed before a final decision is made. One great suggestion is the purchase or lease of the old Sports Authority building which could consolidate the entire town staff and have plenty of civic space available.

Town Hall needs to seek involvement and feedback from the Superior Original Town community before proceeding with the Town Hall expansion project. The current proposed location for this project is an area of single family homes. This is not a good location for such a project. A better location for a new Town Hall would be in the new Superior Town Center.

Outraged Anonymous Homeowner
on May 24, 2016 at 2:15 am

Here we go again!
This smells a lot like the latest iteration of bureaucratic, gold-plated nest-feathering! Unfortunately this type of self serving behavior is deeply imbedded in the DNA of bureaucracies at every level of government from small towns to our bloated, wasteful, Federal monstrosity that increasinglythreatens to pitch us into national bankruptcy and economic collapse!

Of course we need to reject this latest example of unnecessary overspending and expansion of local government in Superior! It’s obvious that those responsible for this are licking their chops at the prospect spending their unfair share of future waves of retail and property tax revenues that may or may not materialize. Why not use those future tax receipts to lower the tax burden of residents and property owners rather than blowing it on this type of resume’-fluffing projects? Let’s stop this ill-fated idea before it gets any farther off the ground than it already is!

Phil
on June 2, 2016 at 9:31 pm

I personally find it hard to justify new construction when so much of our existing retail storefront property remains vacant. I believe a better near-term solution is to rent existing space while building a better long-term solution, appropriately sized for the anticipated growth of Superior.

I was operating under the assumption that a completely new space for the municipal offices was to be included in the new Town Center development.

Concerned About Superior's Direction
on June 14, 2016 at 11:16 pm

I’m a long time resident and I’m concerned that our town is changing into something many don’t want. The current mantra is more is better. More programs, more amenities, more features. All resulting in more spending, more government regulation and oversight, and more government staff. I attended a PROSTAC meeting and it was like they had money they had to spend, whether it was something residents wanted or not. They recently passed an embankment slide for Pirate Park. Has anyone asked for that, especially those whose view will be changed? I also heard one trustee is hankering to build a rugby field. Rugby? Is that something town’s people are clamoring for? The town is also considering covering a pool for year round use. Why not strike a Groupon like deal with Lakeshore and have a pool and more?

I liked Superior smaller with less development and feature-mania drive. More isn’t always more. We shouldn’t forget what made our town a nice place to live in our dash to be something else.